Sunmark Crowdsources for New Website Design

Sunmark FCU's new website was designed by a crowdsourced artist and executed in-house with help from a staff multimedia specialist and Intuit Financial Services.

Sunmark Federal Credit Union turned to the world of the social Internet to help the New York credit union upgrade its online presence.

The $395 million, 45,800-member Sunmark in Latham, N.Y., used crowdsourcing to find the designer for the Albany-area credit union’s new website.

“Crowdsourcing presented an opportunity to see and choose from many unique designs,” said Lisa Totaro, Sunmark’s marketing associate. “We reviewed premium designs at a fraction of what it would traditionally cost with a major design firm.”

A designer from Guatemala was chosen from a pool that began with 32 designs from 15 people who responded to a call for a home page design and then was narrowed to four or five finalists who were asked to create subpages for the Albany-area credit union.

“It was a relatively inexpensive way to get a variety of different thoughts and designs, and the creative process was really great,” Totaro said.

The Capital Region credit union also did a lot of the technical work itself inside, using the talents of Steve Keator, its multimedia specialist who brings to the job an IT programming background as well as marketing skills.

“Steve oversaw the development of the new website in addition to handling digital channel deployment and optimization and internal productivity tools,” Totaro said.

The new website was part of an initiative that also included the addition of remote deposit checking to its mobile banking apps, working with Intuit Financial Services, and an expansion of its US Net shared branching service, adding 19 branches in the Capital Region through four other credit unions.

A soft launch preceded the final product and some changes suggested by members followed, Totaro said.

“We wanted the site to be a little different than the traditional, with more of a conversational tone while providing expertise and information,” Totaro said.

The recent final launch of the new site culminated a year-long process and the feedback has been immediate and positive, the credit union marketer said.

“Our members have been overwhelmingly supportive of the site,” Totaro said. “They have really taken to it, and have told us they find it simple to use and that it really provides them everything they need.”